[Unofficial] Saints @ Texans

just mistakes. 2 penalties in a short period of time.

 

Good read here: Breaking down Texans-Saints

No love for Amobi Okoye or Frank Okam.

 

This is a HUGE year for Amobi, people say that it typically takes 3 years for a player to get acclimated to the league. I agree that we took a big gamble on a big project pick, I really hope he pans out because I loved the pick at the time.

While rebuilding teams cannot miss on first round picks like you said, there have been a LOT of top 10 busts the last couple years or at least guys that did not pan out. I'm not making excuses but I thought it was pretty interesting...

2008:
Chris Long - Haven't heard much about him but the Rams D is still bad.
McFadden - Has played well when healthy but that's been a problem.
Glenn Dorsey - Was considered the safest pick in the draft, but I've read that KC fans have not been happy with him thus far.
Vernon Gholston - Not much to say, hasn't done anything so far.

2007:
JaMarcus Russell - Russell hasn't played well at all, but not sure its his fault.
Ted Ginn Jr. - Has shown flashes here and there but not a top 10 pick.
Amobi Okoye - Looked good his rookie year but hasn't done anything since.

2006 (Quite possibly the most overrated draft in history):
Reggie Bush - Next Gale Sayers? I think not.
Vince Young - Good rookie season, has played terrible ever since.
AJ Hawk - Had a breakout 3rd year, hopefully Amobi will follow.
Vernon Davis- Bust
Michael Huff- Bust
Matt Leinart - Bust

2005:
Alex Smith - Bust
Braylon Edwards - Had 1 good season but has been a bust for the most part.
Cedric Benson - Bust for the most part, played well 2nd half of last season.
Cadillac Williams - Injuries were the main culprit here.
Pacman Jones - Not technically a bust but you know the story.
Troy Williamson- Bust
Mike Williams - Bust

 

oh, that's right. yeah - it's preseason. i thought spencer made a bigger deal out of them than was merited. then again, spencer is terrible.

 

Davis isn't a bust. He certainly wasn't worthy of the #6 pick, but he has at least been a very good blocking TE in his career so far. He just hasn't been the swiss army knife he was touted out to be, but that could begin to change this year with Singletary's new offense.

 

Trust me, I didn't think everything is peachy...Like most, I saw things I liked and didn't...Schaub, Slaton, and Mario played solid. I didn't like the DT's effort. They need to be run stopper specialists. Deeply disappointed in Okoye and Okam. I wanted to see more aggression,....but then again why should Bush show this completely?....Still Yes, the effort I saw against the run was the part that bothered me particularly, but not much more than that.

The young DB's showed why they are rookies,...I'[m afraid DRob is realizing his worth. Bennett was disappointing. Reeves should have been a contributor sans the bad break...

...Now having said that, I'm going to anticipate the things that didn't look peachy WILL be addressed and I look forward to the next BIG pre-season game to measure against the prior one...

 

One thing that really bothered me about Saturday's game was Antonio Smith. The guy was touted as a really good run-stopping DE. I know it was largely our DTs that were getting abused Saturday, but I didn't see Antonio mixing it up in side on the runs very much either.

 

I still have no idea how that guy won the Thorpe Award in College, He's absolutely the worst cover safety ever. What a waste of a draft pick that was. He makes Roy Williams look like a ball-hawk.

Longhorn Fan still tries to argue that he just "needs a chance". He got his chance and still has yet to record a regular season interception.

 

You make a great point. One of the things about Kubiak & Smith that still gives me pause is the issue of talent evaluation. They keep making decisions to rely on guys that can't get the job done. For example, the fallback line we're hearing after Saturday is that the defensive line will get much better once Travis Johnson gets back. Excuse me? TRAVIS JOHNSON? From where I sit, if they are relying on Travis Johnson to fix what happened on Saturday, then we are sooo F'ed. And let's not even talk about Okoye who looks like he'll need another year to be ready to play much less start. As for CB, losing Reeves is this much of a tragedy? The guy was sticking dogmeat with Dallas but that didn't stop them from bringing him here. So then he looked like toaster strudel last season but apparently that wasn't enough to stop them from continuing to rely on him. Now that he's hurt, he's that valuable? Really? To whom? And they have somehow managed to piss off their best CB who worked like a demon to come back from a frightening injury and who now wants out.

It's the same thing on offense with Chris Brown, this year's version of Ahman Green. After what went down with Green, they go out and get Green v2.0. Once he gets hurt, their ability to run the ball will tank and then where will they be? They can pass the ball like wizards but unfortunately, they play in the AFC and to win in the AFC you must be able to consistently run the ball. To me it's like they can do so many things right but it's the few things that they manage to get wrong that really hurt this team in a disproportionate manner. Their margin for error appears to be zero and I'm not sure why this is so.

 

I have to agree with Hillboy on the Travis Johnson point. I'm like really, this is who we're waiting on to get back

 

And again, I say that if the ultimate success of your defensive line is dependent on Travis Johnson, then your season is F'ed. And you continue to misunderstand my position on Kubiak. I'm not sold on his Denver-centric philosophy to the game. I believe that personally he's a pretty decent coach (He's light-years ahead of coach stumble-britches aka Wade Phillips) but I'm still not buying into what he's trying to do. And will somebody take away his red challenge flag?

Okoye was drafted on potential like Mario Williams so it may well take another year before he's ready to handle the position. You are spot on about the physical maturity aspect - he just doesn't look ready.

 

God don't like ugly

 

Apparently you forgot about the days of Matt Stevens. I seriously think there are members of this board with more coverage range than him...

 

So...to be clear...your position is that should the BACKUP running back, Chris Brown, go down due to injury that will somehow make Steve Slaton's head explode or something? We didn't have a legitimate backup running back last season and Slaton still set the league on fire. Our ability to run the ball will live and die with Slaton, not with Chris freaking Brown. The Ahman Green analogy is a poor one because Green WAS brought in to be "the guy" at running back and couldn't hack it. Brown was brought in to be a complement to Slaton.

 

Matt Stevens at least has a career interception.

 

The sky is not falling, Chris Brown is more than adequate backup if healthy.

There will also be quality backs cut soon. Let's see what that brings, we've got our horse we just need the ability to occasionally spell him.

Defensively, I've got some problems but Travis Johnson is not one of them. If he weren't a first round pick many of y'all would be quite happy with his production. He makes some plays he just isn't a world beater. Okoye is has been nonexistent outsideo f his rookie campaign when he actually showed promise. I'm willing to give him more time but I wish we would hear more about his practice habits, I think that would go a long way towards determining how good he will be. Does he work hard in practice etc?

The DBs, it's all hearsay with Dunta at this point. Do we know for sure that he was offered a lucrative contract by the team that he turned down, anyone know this for sure? Fact is, it's sad group we've got back there now. Reeves injury doesn't help but neither did his inability to turn and look for a ball, Bennet is looking like Petey pt deux which ain't good. The rookies, Mccain and glover, hell we'll be lucky to get one nickel guy out of the both of them. Safety is still being manned by a couple of retreads so basically our playoffs are going to hinge on the pass rush.

Basically, if we can generate sufficient pass rush some of the other deficiencies can be overcome. But to do that our d-line chock full of names and potential will have to play at another level; one they should be able to attain.

And yes, Kubiak needs to hand over the red flag throwing duties along with the playcalling to skeletor junior. He is the absolute worst I have seen when deciding when to throw it.

The Oline is still IMO average at best.

But the sky is not falling, we have a real football team for the very first time in over a decade it's just not quite a finished product yet.

 

Not that he's necessarily any better but Dominique Barber isn't a retread. It's hard to really watch the safeties all game to see how they are performing but they've been fairly high on him. We'll see, though.

I think our secondary is certainly average, at best. But if our pass rush can be elite and if our linebackers can stay healthy I think we'll see an improved defense.

And I disagree on the o-line completely. Brown has looked good, Winston is top notch, and while the interior isn't anything special together they play well. And with Gibbs coaching any o-line is going to play better than their talent level indicates.

 

I'm pretty sure every person on this board as more range matt stevens right now...as unfortunate as the circumstances are.

 

Forgot about that story.

 

Ah hem. Let me clear up my position here. Nowhere am I saying that the running game this season depends on Chris Brown. I'm talking about why they continue to trust the backup running back position to someone like Chris Brown. The consensus I've seen is that they are relying on Chris Brown's ablity to avoid injury and stay on the field. Now IF that happens, then the running game looks to be solid with Slaton, Moats & Brown. But that's a big IF because I'm of the opinion that it's not a question of IF Brown will get hurt, it's a question of WHEN. As good as Slaton is, he can't do it all by himself and a solid backup at RB would make the running game that much better.

I think the Green analogy is spot on here. Green was a guy they continued to rely on even when it became obvious that he couldn't stay on the field. They brought him back for another season where he couldn't perform once again because he got hurt again. Brown was dropped by Tenn for basically the same reason yet they bring him in last season and he gets hurt...again. So what do they do? Why the same thing they did with Green: they bring him back for another go round. That's all I'm saying here. I'm just not onboard with this way of thinking.